I scream and plunge my crescent blades forward. They bite into the edge of the marble stairs as I’m dragged down by the momentum of my fall—and by some miracle, Healer catches onto a groove in the stair. I’m dangling off the first marble stair, my arms trembling. One slip and I’m gone, and Ma will die a hollow shell of a person, and Méi’zi will be alone until the Kingdom of Night swallows our realm.
Gong…
Sweat and tears roll down my face as, with the last of my strength, I pull myself up.
The final gong sounds just as I haul myself onto the first marble stair. My muscles burn from overexertion, but I’m off, taking the steps three at a time even as the echoes of the last gong fade into silence and the sun slips beneath the horizon. I barrel through the tallest pái’fangs I have ever seen; knifing into the skies, they are made of glittering marble and bear signs of lacquered wood and lapis lazuli that announce in swirling characters:Temple of Dawn.
The gilded temple doors appear before me, cast in the slanting light of dusk.Hall of Radiant Sun,announces the gleaming plaque overhead. From within, I hear voices.
I burst into a great hall of pale stone and gold accents. Silk paintings depicting mountains and rivers and rolling clouds flutter between pillars from which incense burners smoke. Guards in white-and-gold lamellar line the hallway, swords gleaming from their hips. My sight is blurring, my heart is pulsing in my ears, and I think I’m about to throw up. I barely notice the crowd gathered at a rosewood dais; I barely see the figures lined up at the very end.
“…Wèi’fán of the Eastern Province and Zhou’kang of the Western Province,” a clear tenor voice announces, echoing beneath a yawning fretwork ceiling that gleams with jeweled paintings of phoenixes, dragons, deer, and carp amidst magnificent blooms. “Congratulations on completing the first of the Immortality Trials. The Temple of Dawn welcomes you and invites you to continue your participation.”
Claps and cheers sound out from the gathered crowd. I’m moving forward at a limp, dripping water all over the pristine marble floors and the vermilion silk carpet that unfurls through the hall.
“That concludes our roll call for the day—”
“Wait!”
There is a whirl of motion as heads turn, and I feel the immediate gaze of every single pair of eyes in that hall upon me.
“And me,” I croak, raising my hand even as the gem-encrusted ceilings begin to spin. “Àn’ying of the Central Province.”
9
I register the shock on the sea of faces, but I’m more focused on the figures on the golden dais. They resemble humans, yet somehow, they aremore:from the way they glow like the morning sun to how their long robes ripple like celestial rivers. As if they are too light to be tethered to the ground of this realm. Of course, I know what they are.
Immortals.
They look ethereal, their faces holding a gentle flush, exuding life. There is a perfection to their appearance that no mortal body can achieve: their skin is smoothed over as though made of pearl dust; their hair shines with the luster of polished black onyx; their features are distinct, with eyes small or large, faces square or round, noses soft or sharp, yet all coming together to form a portrait of radiant and impossible beauty. They are flowers at the brightest bloom—but while flowers fade and mortals’ youth turns to ash, immortals’ brilliance is eternal.
There are eight of them, each distinctively dressed in silksand gauzes adorned with flora and fauna, robes crafted so well they ripple with life.
The Eight Immortals. I have read of them briefly in my father’s notes—but more so in all the legends of the realms. Long, long ago, they were mortals who crossed the Endless Sea to the realm in the skies beyond ours. The Jade Emperor, ruler of the immortal realm, was moved by their courage. He drew eight drops of his own golden blood, condensing them into pills that would infuse spirit energy into their mortal souls and grant them eternal life.Find me the best warriors of the mortal realm, and offer them a chance at glory, power, and eternity,he’d commanded them.
Thus began the Immortality Trials.
I study the Eight Immortals now, seeking a trace of their past in their faces, but they wear their immortality like stone polished smooth by timeless waters. I wonder if eternity would make me forget my humanity, too.
The immortal announcing arrivals pauses and arches a brow. His outfit blazes red and gold, almost imperial in appearance. “Oh?” he says in a lofty, melodious voice, and the bejeweled bamboo scepter in his hands gleams as he leans forward to peer at me. “But the twelfth gong has sounded.”
“No need to argue with a mortal who is due for the Nine Fountains, Jing’xiù,” says an immortal holding a large fan made of what resemble the finest ostrich feathers across the realms. His robes hang loose on him, baring much of his chest. His gaze slides over me as though I am a part of the floor. “I shall call the guards to throw her out.”
Sunlight lances off the white-gold armor of the dozens of guards lining the hall.
“No,” I gasp, my gaze returning to the immortals seatedon the dais. “I arrived before sundown. I was at the temple threshold by the twelfth gong. I qualify.”
There’s a sharp intake of breath all around me as the candidates whisper among themselves.
Someone laughs; I trace the sound to an immortal on the far left. They wear a pure blue robe and carry a woven basket of plants: sprigs of heavenly bamboo, sun-yellow chrysanthemums, and jade-green pines, stalks of magic fungi and flowering plums. “She argues!” they exclaim and gift me a wide smile, the corners of their eyes creasing. “I like her. Shall we let her pass?”
“The rules are the rules, Cai’hé!” snaps the immortal on the far right. He’s holding a white-flowered gourd in his arms. Plumes of golden smoke waft from its spout, curling into the air.
Cai’hé tilts their head. “Well,technically…shedidarrive at the Temple of Dawn by the twelfth gong….”
The world is no longer spinning. Instead, I feel something hot and powerful course through my veins and fist in my heart.
I am suddenlyfurious.I have crossed the mortal lands and survived all the monsters and demons lurking there; I have fought and bled and sacrificed to reach this place—this place that holds the only key to saving my mother’s life. I have lived, picking at scraps and screaming through nightmares of my father’s blank, unseeing eyes and harvesting lotuses for my soulless mother in our dying mortal kingdom for all these years…and they are arguing over my entry as though itentertainsthem.
